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sustainable community planning

Platform for Responsible Redevelopment of the Gowanus Canal

Keywords: 
Brooklyn
sustainable community planning
affordable housing
land use
zoning
urban manufacturing
local manufacturing

We believe that the rezoning and development of the Gowanus Canal area provides a great opportunity for our community.

Research Type: 
Report
Issue Area: 
Building Resilient Communities
Date: 
Monday, October 15, 2007
Document: 
prattcenter-gowanus_summit-principles_for_responsible_development_0.pdf

Community Resiliency Planning Hubs

Intro Paragraph: 
In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, Pratt Center envisions the creation of community resiliency planning hubs to streamline government resources and to foster a participatory rebuilding process. Toward this end, we recently worked with a number of our partners to launch the Sandy Design Help Desk in Rockaway.
Keywords: 
sustainable community planning
affordable housing
citywide
climate resiliency
Community-based, post-Sandy planning hubs can serve as a one-stop-shop for government, communities and businesses to work toward resiliency.
Body: 

For one week in October 2013, the Help Desk provided free expert design and technical consultation to residents and property owners still recovering from Hurricane Sandy. Volunteer architects and designers gave individual guidance on building code, zoning and design questions. We...

Project Partners: 
American Institute of Architects New York Chapter
Margert Community Corporation
Enterprise Community Partners
Project Status: 
Archived
Location: 
Queens

Seward Park Urban Renewal Area (SPURA)

Intro Paragraph: 
Four decades ago, an urban renewal project near the foot of the Williamsburg Bridge on Manhattan's Lower East Side displaced thousands of low-income tenants.
Keywords: 
Manhattan
sustainable community planning
land use
Pratt Center assisted local stakeholders in conducting visioning sessions to address the development of the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area in lower Manhattan.
Body: 

While the city built affordable housing on some of the cleared parcels in the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area (SPURA), several large blocks went undeveloped. In 2009, parking lots occupied the undeveloped zone of SPURA along Delancey Street, even while the Lower East Side,...

Project Status: 
Archived
Location: 
Manhattan
Status: 
Completed in 2013

Inclusionary Zoning

Intro Paragraph: 
During his first term in office, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced expansive plans to rezone more than twenty New York City communities – including the Far West Side of Manhattan, Greenpoint/Williamsburg, Long Island City, and parts of the South Bronx. As originally proposed, the plans were poised to generate more than 50,000 new units of housing, almost all of them for rent or sale at market rates.
Keywords: 
affordable housing
citywide
zoning
sustainable community planning
Pratt Center co-led a coalition that successfully advocated for new affordable housing through inclusionary zoning.
Body: 

Pratt Center joined with community groups, advocacy and religious organizations to successfully advocate for the rezonings to generate badly needed new affordable housing for low, moderate, and middle-income New Yorkers, with the help of inclusionary zoning. ...

Project Status: 
Archived
Location: 
City-Wide
Status: 
Completed in 2016

Gowanus Summit: Responsible Development

Intro Paragraph: 
Pratt Center helped convene the Gowanus Summit: a coalition of civic, housing and community development, manufacturing, and labor groups to establish ground rules for development around the Gowanus Canal. Our work aimed to ensure that new development meets the needs of area residents and sets high standards for local quality of life.
Keywords: 
Brooklyn
sustainable community planning
affordable housing
land use
zoning
urban manufacturing
local manufacturing
Pratt Center helped convene the Gowanus Summit, a coalition to establish ground rules for development in the Gowanus Canal area.
Body: 

The Gowanus Summit's Platform for Responsible Development of the Gowanus Canal Area, developed with the Pratt Center's support, calls for the...

Project Status: 
Archived
Location: 
Brooklyn
Status: 
Completed in 2007

Reforming NYC's 421-a Property Tax Exemption Program

Intro Paragraph: 
Pratt Center has played a pivotal role in reforming the 421-a tax abatement, available to developers in certain zones of New York City who sponsor the creation of affordable housing, to expand the program's reach beyond central Manhattan.
Keywords: 
affordable housing
citywide
sustainable community planning
Pratt Center played a pivotal role in reforming the 421-a tax abatement to sponsor the creation of affordable housing beyond central Manhattan.
Body: 

Former director Brad Lander served on a mayoral task force evaluating options for reform of the program, which cost New York City $400 million in 2006 even while many developers receiving the benefit were not obligated to produce affordable housing in exchange.

As a result of a...

Project Status: 
Archived
Location: 
City-Wide

Northside Town Hall Community Center

Intro Paragraph: 
Built in 1869, Engine 212 was threatened with forced closure in the 1970s by a cash-strapped city government. New York City’s poorest neighborhoods were then suffering waves of arson and destructive fires. At the same time, City services, including fire-fighting, were being slashed.
Keywords: 
Brooklyn
sustainable community planning
preservation
In 2009, Pratt Center helped to transform Engine 212 – “The People’s Firehouse” - into a community and cultural center.
Body: 

Community members rallied around the firehouse, occupying it for eighteen months until the City relented. Engine 212 was dubbed “The People’s Firehouse,” and the moniker stuck with a group of community activists who came together in support of the firehouse. These activists continued to fight...

Project Status: 
Archived
Location: 
Brooklyn
Status: 
Completed in 2008

Manhattan Community Board 9 197-a Plan

Intro Paragraph: 
From 2003 to 2007, Pratt Center worked closely with Community Board 9 Manhattan (CB9M) and the Harlem Community Development Corporation to craft a comprehensive set of recommendations to guide the future development of three neighborhoods in northern Manhattan: Morningside Heights, Manhattanville, and Hamilton Heights.
Keywords: 
Manhattan
zoning
preservation
job creation
affordable housing
land use
sustainable community planning
Pratt Center worked with local stakeholders to develop recommendations to guide development in three northern Manhattan neighborhoods.
Body: 

Community Board 9's plan for the area guided the local response to Columbia University's proposal to expand into Manhattanville. Pratt Center assembled a team to assist Community Board 9 in evaluating Columbia's own rezoning proposal for Manhattanville, including a review and analysis of the...

Project Status: 
Archived
Location: 
Manhattan
Status: 
Completed in 2007

One City/One Future

Intro Paragraph: 
One City/One Future, a collaboration between National Employment Law Project, New York Jobs with Justice, and Pratt Center, developed an ambitious new vision for economic development, in which growth delivers living wage jobs, affordable housing, environmental sustainability, and livable neighborhoods.
Keywords: 
job creation
affordable housing
citywide
land use
zoning
sustainable community planning
The One City/One Future Blueprint was the product of four years of a diverse collaboration to make economic development work for all New Yorkers.
Body: 

It provided an urgently needed framework for recovery from the current economic downturn. A vision for shared prosperity, it put the needs and voices of communities front and center. Most crucially it...

Project Status: 
Archived
Location: 
City-Wide

Church Avenue Retail Project

Intro Paragraph: 
The Church Avenue Business Improvement District (BID) retained Pratt Center to conduct a retail market study and needs assessment with the goal of making sure the already successful retail strip – the shopping hub of Flatbush -- better serves a neighborhood where the poor and middle class live side by side.
Keywords: 
Brooklyn
sustainable community planning
local retail
small businesses
In partnership with local small businesses, Pratt Center conducted a retail market study and needs assessment to strengthen the Church Avenue commercial strip.
Body: 

The project, surveying the strip from Coney Island Avenue to Flatbush Avenue, looked at what shoppers and residents purchase on Church Avenue and elsewhere. The project examined Church Avenue's mix of retail and the quality of goods of and services offered. In addition, using a survey...

Project Status: 
Archived
Who's Working on this Project?: 
Vicki Weiner
Location: 
Brooklyn

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